Horsetail

Any of you have horsetail weeds in your area? Man, they are the worst. When they take over a planting bed - I mean REALLY take over - like get inside the shrubs and everything - I don't see any option other than just killing off everything in the entire planting bed (including the shrubs that have been taken over) and starting over again from scratch.

I just hate the stuff.

Crossbow seems to do a good job of killing it. But again, usually it's inside all the groundcovers, plants, etc. I can't figure out what to do other than just kill everything effected and start over.

Ive had good luck spot spraying the open areas with amitrol and mecoprop. The amitrol really likes to follow the roots and kill further than the contact plant. Casaron also seems to have a fair effect on ht's in ground covers. Amitrol takes forever for knock down so thats why the mecoprop. With straight amitrol you will be looking at those dying ht's for weeks on end, with the mecoprop, it will knock them down in about 10 days while still giving full benifits of the amitrol. Mecoprop just kills off the top growth while the amitrol kills back a lot of the roots too.

Ramairfreak98ss : And as far as bank financing or whatever, the guys working for us arnt buying houses or Cadillacs here, common.

On several of the properties that I picked up this year, horsetail was an ongoing problem. I applied Round-up every seven days for three weeks. The first and second apps only seem to stun it, then the third usually kills it. The only place I still have it, is in the shrubs themselves.

Mike
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Jim for ground cover and plants that Horsetail or other weeds are growing up in. We use different size pvc pipe and fit it around the weed(what ever it is) then use sprayer and spray in Pvc pipe. Leave pipe there untill weed(what ever it is) is dead. It is a pain but better than redoing the entire landscapeing at your cost. Most customers are not willing to pay for redo when they are paying you monthly to make sure the beds are clean of weeds.

Ya' know, when I moved from the coast to the east side of the Cascades I thought I'd probably get away from this stuff. Wrong, wrong! But fortunately it's not as bad out here. Got away from the blackberries, and the scotch broom, but picked up on knapweed and some other real winners. Guess we just can't win.

I used to put on cotton gloves soaked in Crossbow over latex gloves and then "shake hands" with all of those little twerps sticking up out of the ground cover.

If the plants are Casoron tolerant an over-the-top application at 100-150# of the 4G product per acre should do the job, but check the label for tolerance for each plant in the yard to be treated. Generally, surface rooted plants like rhodies and small conifers can suffer from over-application. Watch out for ferns, vinca and heather, all very sensitive. Make sure the owner waters by hand at least a 1/2" within the first week or so, especially if the temps. are above 80 degrees. A few short waterings is better than one long one. Runoff into lawns will kill grass as will footprints from the treated area to the lawn (I see this all the time). Manage has a label for horsetail and can be applied over-the-top also. By the way Critical Care, you won't find the glove technique on the label so it's illegal you know. Why not just paint it on with a foam paint brush and dispose of the brush properly? Neal

Hmm... the dispersing of chemicals in other ways than what is on the label is illegal. True? If so, then there is perhaps reason to doubt the legality of the paint brush method as well. Regardless, these methods wouldn't be my first choice.